Product Description

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/23/2005 Director: Ken Burns

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63718 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2004-09-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 360 minutes

Customer Reviews

Before it was Chi-town
The subtitle is "City of the Century" because it stops at 1899, roughly. Thus, the infamy of gangsters and the mayoralty of the Daleys, father and son, are never brought up. At the very last second of the 3rd, really last, DVD they mention the arrival of African Americans. I can't even think of Chicago without blacks. They made the blues and house music. Harold Washington made history. This city still suffers from severe segregation. But I guess all of that arose in the 20th century. This DVD gives scant attention to Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable and every black school in the City emphasizes that he founded Chicago. Actually, Chicago has more Polish people than any city besides Warsaw and yet they scarcely get brought up either. Heavy attention is placed upon the Irish, however.

This documentary focuses heavily upon business leaders. One learns much about famous names like Fields, Pullman, and others. This work seemed to emphasize that class and ethnicity were the big dividers in that era. It seems so different from now when race plays that role, and has done so for decades.

For real, this series could have been held on 2 DVDs, rather than 4. I guess it looks better as 4 in the libraries and dens of those who collect it. The last DVD gives you a great tour of the City now. I think it's actually not related to the first 3 discs. However, it does cover much info that those discs miss. It emphasizes churches and I found that surprising. I love the way the last disc shows that communities are in flux. Something that was majorly Irish in the past can be majorly Mexican-American now; places that once were home to European immigrants are now home for Asian and Latino newcomers.

Don't get me wrong: this was a fantastic work. It's about time that documentarians accept that Chicago is worth serious study just as New York City has been. Still, I don't know if non-Chicagoans would be as interested in this. True, it does show that cities become huge for a reason. Chicago connected the MS River with the Great Lakes which led to the Atlantic Ocean. Then again, Chicago means "Land of the Wild Onion," so Native Illinoisans found it stinky and useless. I guess history is both utilitarian and created by chance.

The Documentary Chicagoans Love to Hate
This outstanding addition to the PBS American Experience series is based on David Miller's "City of Century," the history of Chicago's meteoric rise from a swamp on the edge of Lake Michigan to America's second largest metropolis at the end of the 19th Century. Between 1833-1899 Chicago stood at the center of, and symbolized America's rise from a rural republic to an industrial giant. The first modern city of the United States and, much as Manchester was to England's Industrial Revolution, the "shock city" of American capitalism.

Chicago-City of the Century presents Chicago's history with all of its glory and its warts (which is why many Chicagoans hate the film). It is about the often overlooked impact of Chicago in the 19th Century and it is not about Chicago in the 20th Century.

I suspect that the book and this documentary may ultimately help launch dozens of histories about Chicago's impact on the wider world during the 19th Century.

A tease?
It felt like it was part of a larger series that was never completed. Things were really getting interesting when wham! Goodbye. The end. I was waiting for the black culture portion, then Capone and the politics of the 20th Century but alas...

Also, I really can't stand those dramatic slow-motion recreations it has. It is a trend that always ruins a doc for me. Ken Burns never does that and seems to do just fine.

See Ric Burns' (Ken's brother) "New York" for a perfect and masterful history of a city. It is superb.